Ukraine: Journalists union attacked by Government MP

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The IFJ has strongly condemned accusations by a Ukrainian MP that the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) was guilty of implementing “Russian media projects” and supporting anti-Ukrainian media. The astonishing claims came after the union opposed government raids on a prominent Ukrainian news website.

The IFJ/ EFJ vowed to stand shoulder to shoulder with its affiliate in Ukraine in defending its actions in representing the country’s journalists and defending press freedom.

The politician, Dymtro Tymchuk, a member of the People’s Front faction has claimed the NUJU leadership was “working against information security of the country”. He also accused the NUJU of participating in anti-Ukrainian projects. President of the NUJU, Sergiy Tomilenko believes Tymchuk’s pressure is largely based on Tomilenko’s call for the respect of journalists’ rights following the Ukrainian secret services raid of popular Ukrainian news site Strana.ua. Tymchuk has labelled this website as “anti-ukrainian”.

Tymchuk has now stirred up enmity against the NUJU in the media and on social networks, with more than 40 media accusing the union of threatening national security in the country.

“This slander threatens NUJU activists and members and inhibits the organization from representing its members and upholding press freedom in Ukraine”, said IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger. “The IFJ condemns these attempts by Tymchuk to exert political pressure on the NUJU and its leadership, who are defending freedom of the press and their members, as any good journalists’ union should.”

ABOUT IFJ

The International Federation of Journalists is the world's largest organisation of journalists. First established as the Fédération Internationale des Journalistes (FIJ) in 1926 in Paris, it was relaunched as the International Organization of Journalists (IOJ) in 1946, but lost its Western members to the Cold War and re-emerged in its present form in 1952 in Brussels. Today the Federation represents around 600.000 members in more than 140 countries across the world. The IFJ promotes international action to defend press freedom and social justice through strong, free and independent trade unions of journalists.